120114 Where Prejudice Lives

Why? Because the Adversary wants us to fight. Power corrupts, and Hollywood has enormous power.

"You would think that someone considered one of the most powerful players in Hollywood, a man who has made billions with blockbusters such as the "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars" franchises, would have been able to get "Red Tails" approved without any hesitation. Yet many African-Americans have long known that in Tinseltown, the color of your skin -- or that of the people in the story you want to tell -- often falls victim to racial pigeonholing.

Oh, sure, Hollywood is seen as a liberal bastion where folks talk about equality and supporting civil rights, but when it comes to telling stories that have mostly black casts, Hollywood might as well return to the '50s and '60s and erect signs that say "Whites Only."

Roland Martin

When Lucas approached the major Hollywood studios about backing "Red Tails," he was told: Thanks, but no thanks.

"There's no major white roles in it at all ... I showed it to all of them and they said no, we don't know how to market a movie like this," Lucas told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

Let's juxtapose that against some other facts:

-- In 2008, 69 million people voted for Barack Hussein Obama as president of the United States;

-- The most talked-about woman in America over the past 25 years was Oprah Winfrey, who redefined the talk show genre;

-- Which athlete has the top-selling jersey in the NBA? LeBron James;

-- Who is considered the top-grossing actor? Samuel L. Jackson;

-- Arguably the greatest entertainer of all time is Michael Jackson;

-- The greatest golfer in the world? Tiger Woods;

-- The most dominating players in women's tennis? Venus and Serena Williams;

-- The top singer today? Beyonce;

-- And hip-hop, an outgrowth of black culture, is a worldwide phenemonon. And 80% of the consumers of hip-hop music in America are white kids.

So whites all across America have come to accept African-Americans in a variety of public media, but Hollywood continues to want to tell us that somehow seeing blacks on the big screen is anathema to their values.

Maybe what no one in Hollywood wants to own up to is that in many ways, it is a close-minded society where it's hard to find African-Americans in positions of true power.

In the history of Hollywood, no African-American has ever headed a major studio. Yes, we've seen Black CEOs at American Express, Time Warner, Xerox, Merrill Lynch, Symantec and other major companies, but the doors of opportunity are closed in Hollywood.

Does this mean African-Americans aren't hired? No. But those are low-level positions where they desperately fight the good fight, knowing full well they will never ascend to the top of the food chain in Hollywood."  

-- full story at  http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/14/opinion/martin-red-tails-hollywood/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

120111 Health

Since last week, I lost two pounds and the knee works  better and hurts less. :) Used a new oil called "PanAway". Why did he call that blend that name? No matter, the developer used it for that same reason I need it: damaged ligaments in the knee. I may become a distributor for this stuff.

120109 Skewed

"...a study was done in 2008 by Arthur Brooks, a Syracuse University professor who discovered, much to his chagrin, that "evil" conservatives contribute about 30 percent more to charities than our oh-so-caring liberal counterparts:

'When I started doing research on charity, I expected to find that political liberals — who, I believed, genuinely cared more about others than conservatives did — would turn out to be the most privately charitable people, he said. "So when my early findings led me to the opposite conclusion, I assumed I had made some sort of technical error. I re-ran analyses. I got new data. Nothing worked. In the end, I had no option but to change my views.'

But it gets worse, comrades. Conservatives donated more to charity — despite the fact that liberal family incomes were 6 percent higher on average." --Arnold Ahlert

Some people hate to hear the truth. Watched a video of an old TV show last night. The antagonist was homeschooled. Writers should do their own studies. How many people in federal prison were actually homeschooled? Well, I know one who thought is was a good idea, but he himself went to public school. How many people in federal prisons went to public school? Uh huh.

120105 The Elixir of Life

Today, I woke very early and drove down to Jourdanton to visit a friend in the hospital. Visiting hours started at 7am. I read to him a little, listened when he spoke, and chatted about stuff. Even though my goal was to bless him by listening, he asked  me about my activities. Friends are like that. We need some special designation for quality of friendship. There are friends, and there are FRIENDS. Frequently, I refer to him as my brother to show that the relationship is stronger than normal, but lacks any boyfriend/girlfriend qualities.

What I read him concerned some of the reason for that relationship. He is my brother in Christ. Seventy to eighty percent of Americans are Christian, so technically, they are my brothers or sisters in Christ, too, but most of them seem to have left home and ignore the finer points of their heritage. My friend and I definitely live in the same household, the Household of Faith, if you will. We believe for more than just salvation.

When he first realized that something in his body was wrong, he did not have a job. I had just lived through my own surgery for the same condition, and taught him how to change his diet. The second warning convinced him to stick to the diet. It was his first day on a new job. His employer signed him up for medical insurance. The holidays came. Holiday foods include lots of fat and caustic spices.

Most of you have had little experience with our culture and the foods we love. I know this because the vast majority of Americans online are WASPS: white, anglo-saxon, protestants (at least in ancestry). The Hispanic community is growing, but that doesn't mean that all we do (or eat) is mainstream. My friend saturated himself in all the traditional festivities, and after work on Tuesday arrived at the Emergency Room.

He no longer has a gall bladder. When his body gets used to that, he can eat all the tamales, picante, and menudo he wants.

120104 Civility

A friend of mine has a birthday today. He is a man’s man who is built like a mountain and has a heart more valuable than gold. He has gone over and above the call of mere friendship to help me and my girls these last few years. He represents much of what is good and right and godly among humans. I have known some other members of his family, and see that his parents taught him well. They need to be commended for excellence in instruction.

Next, consider the contrast. This morning, I viewed a short video of a group of middle aged adolescents storming a coffee shop. What right did they have to harass a small business owner? They call themselves the 99%, but they listen to the 1% and attack the middle class. They are reliving the 1960s with pollyanna attitudes of ‘fairness’ and ‘ social justice’. Such things do not exist. Who decides what is fair? Someone is destined to end up with less then they deserve.

I have no desire to live under socialism nor communism, which do not work as stated. I realized this as a teen in 1974. No one told me what to think or what to study. I researched it for my own enrichment. I read translations of Marx and Nietzsche and looked for analysts who favored socialist systems. I scared my parents with the books I devoured. In the end, I concluded that it looked good, sounded wonderful, but it would never work on humans. Human nature defies sharing and selfless cooperation. Someone would cheat.

In November 2008, there was much cheering among the masses. I used to read blogs on a certain site. One woman wrote that she felt so empowered by the Obama win, that she bullied an elderly couple. She gloried in it! She gloated that she felt so empowered by the new president that she trampled the rights of an elderly couple in a public park by letting her two big dogs jump all over them. The dogs were not on leashes, but she blamed them for not liking it. They had been sitting peacefully on a park bench before the incident. She thought they were wrong even to complain.

I have not had first hand experience with the Occupy Movement, other than to see a few tents near a college campus. Many of the things I have read appall me. It’s not about peace, love, and rock and roll. It’s about hate for the republic, for the middle class, for self-determination. Those things are dangerous to those who wish to control others. Socialism controls.

What follows will be that about which people like to argue the most. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.* The United States of America was founded on the Word of God. The Ten Commandments were the foundation for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Removing God from our government removes the motivation to do good. Relativistic morals can move all over the place until good is called evil, and evil is known as good. 

When the angels proclaimed peach on earth, they were not talking about any lack of war. According to the scope of the Word, they meant that individuals can have peace with God. I do, so I am not worried. The world is going to hell in a hand basket. It may get better for a time, but the end is inevitable. Even so, those like me shall be saved from the wrath to come. God promised. All His promises have come to pass, except those that are still future.

Happy Birthday, Sensei! God bless you, today! Our Lord has a special place for you in paradise.

*2 Corinthians 3:17 (because self-control works better than laws.)

120103 Learn Something About Me

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Got a divorce. :(

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I usually don’t bother making any, and 2011 was no exception. In 2012, I decided to resolve to lose weight.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. A dear friend surcumbed to cancer after living ten years beyond her first doctor’s expectations.

5. What countries did you visit?
I didn’t leave Texas.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Income from a job that lets me mostly sit and use my brain, but allows me to walk freely when I need to. It needs to have less than 15 hours per week, and pay enough to cover my bills.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
On February 7, 2011 I became single again. I cried.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Peace.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Losing control.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, this pain, inflamation, and cane use resulted from a skiing accident in 1980.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A flat screen TV. My one frivolous purchase from the sale of the house.

12. Were you satisfied by your sex life?
Why do you ask?

13. Did you read enough books?
No. I don’t read as much I used to. My vision is failing.

14. Where did most of your money go?
I tried to start a business, but it didn’t go well. The rest of my money went to supporting myself and two teens.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing God work in my life to provide everything I needed when I needed it! My job does not support me and my girls, but God makes sure that we have all we need!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
The year started with this one.
Last Resort by Papa Roach
I could not go on living that way, so I changed my direction and chose this song.
Broken, Beat, and Scarred by Metallica



Compared to this time last year, are you:

17. Thinner or fatter?
About the same.

18. Richer or poorer?
Monetarily? Physically? Emotionally? I have less, but I feel better.

19. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Exercise and sell stuff

20. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being sick.

21. How did you spend Christmas?
Quiet time with father.

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Yes, and it is unpleasant. Making a decision about loving is far more enjoyable.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
We don’t get TV programming.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don’t hate people. I hate things, actions, and willful ignorance.

26. What was the best book you read?
Jeremiah. As bad as it was for Israel in that book, I know that it did not stay that way. Their destruction set the stage for the fulfillment of the promise of a Redeemer. As bad as it will be in this country in the next decade, I know that things will eventually get better. That’s a promise of God.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The piano is tuned! I can play again!

28. What did you want and get?
Power of Attorney.

29. What did you want and not get?
My old life.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Thor. Chris Hollingworth was perfect.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 53, Was this the year the the girls surprised me with a visit to my favorite Greek restaurant? They also asked some of my fiends to help with the surprise, and we all had a fun and happy lunch. I needed that.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Personally, not much. Maybe I could have used more direct help with the business, but I did not know whom to ask. Mostly, it would have been great if I didn’t live in such ‘interesting times’. As I stated before, God takes care of me, so most of the negatives are just complaining.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
My fashion concepts follow those of Old Ladies Who Don´t Care.

34. What kept you sane?
God first. When I start to lose my temper, my equilibrium, or my sanity, I check to see if I have been neglecting my relationship with Him. Time in the Word improves my outlook.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Chris Hollingworth? I don’t know if he has a brain in his head. I was too busy appreciating his other fine traits.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The re-writing and/or redefining our Constitution by intellectual elites who think that the ‘common’ people (individuals) know less than the ‘all-powerful’ government. Also, the runaway government debt needs to be reversed..

37. Who did you miss?
Raymond. Yes, the old Raymond, who loved us more than some manipulative girl with her insane mom.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
JT.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

Broken, Beat, and Scarred

You rise, you fall.
Your down then you rise again.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
You rise, you fall.
Your down then you rise again.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
Rise, fall, down, rise again.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
Rise, fall, down, rise again.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
Through black days, through black nights,
Through pitch black insights.


Breaking your teeth on the hard life a'coming.
Show, your, scars.
Cutting your feet on the hard earth a'running.
Show, your, scars.
Breaking your life, broken beat and scarred.
But we die hard!

The dawn, the death, the fight to the final breath.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
The dawn, the death, the fight to the final breath.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
Dawn, death, fight, final breath.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
Dawn, death, fight, final breath.
What don't kill you make you more strong.
They scratch me, they scrape me,
they cut and rape me.

Breaking your teeth on the hard life a'coming.
Show, your, scars.
Cutting your feet on the hard earth a'running.
Show, your, scars.
Breaking your life, broken beat and scarred.
but we die hard!

Breaking your teeth on the hard life a'coming.
Show, your, scars.
Cutting your feet on the hard earth a'running.
Show, your, scars.
Raiding your soul in a hard luck story.
Show, your, scars.
Spilling your blood in a hot sun's a'glory.
Show, your, scars.
Breaking your life, broken beat and scarred.

We die hard
We die hard
We die hard

120103 EEOC and Education

"If a high school diploma is not necessary, then the Education Department is now officially obsolete making it item #1 on list of programs to cut. Thank you for your help, EEOC!"


I don´t know who wrote that, but it was quoted in Arnold Ahlert´s column. I love it! Someone reached a logical conclusion! I love logic. Politicians do not demonstrate logic, except in their methods of getting votes. They depend on the illogic of their constituents.